October: Beautiful and Busy

Hey Y’all… As promised here is the short version of “My October” update! As I sit here on the very last day of October writing this entry I can officially say that I AM EXHAUSTED and honestly the hustle and bustle has only just begun. We have packed so much fun stuff into October that it probably would have suited me better to just do an entry on a weekly basis- but here I am a month later and several, several entries behind and am going to do my best to enhance and highlight all the October moments! So without wasting any more time, here goes…
Aside from the daily life, which for the most part is the same everyday there has been a lot of extra special fun stuff!! The hubs and I have of course been steadily preparing, thinking and executing projects for the kids birthday party, there is definitely A LOT of time, effort, thought and heart put into this bash, the invitations have been mailed and I cannot wait to see it all executed and see the fruit of our sweat and hard work, which we will in- oh about…T MINUS TWO WEEKS (can I get a holy smokes- cuz that’s what I’m sayin’). I am excited about having a two year old, but may I just say that for the heart it is terribly hard to believe and at times stomach that I have such an independent, fun, smart, caring, everyday expanding and changing handsome little boy- not much of a baby anymore! It does get more fun with age, although, I must say that we have made it a point to enjoy every stage to the upmost potential. On an ending note, I am just thrilled about kiddo’s birthday party (as if you couldn’t already tell), excited to see all the gifts he will receive, the special memories that will be made and how excited he will be to have that special day(s) dedicated to so very special him!
October…October is beautiful. It is the beginning of fall (really) because the leaves start to change, the air begins to get crisp and you can smell it in the air, the days seemingly get shorter because it slowly but surely starts getting darker sooner and sooner. You can hear the calling of traditions and memories in the making. We have tried our hardest to pack something fun into everyday or weekend that we possibly could in between work and portrait sessions we have done a good job at filling October FULL! Prior to October I searched and searched online, looking for that perfect pumpkin patch. I wanted somewhere that we could make it a tradition to go to every year- something that we could count on and look forward to. I have very fond memories of going to certain places every year as a child, and I feel that’s important for Lo to have that as he grows up; tradition. So after much searching for specifics that I wanted to find, being: a hay ride, animals to pet, games, corn maze, and a pumpkin patch where you actually go out to the patch and cut it off the vine, I found it! Excited?! Yes, I was! Ballinger Farms in Jefferson City, TN- they had it all including things that I didn’t even have on my “perfect pumpkin patch” list of wants. We went early to mid-October and of course the whole family went- we kinda travel as a pack (yea, like wolves!). We had a great time (were you expecting me to say anything different?!) or at least all I am remembering is the good stuff!! We make it a point to focus on just the good stuff and not let the bad get in the way, who wants to remember that anyway?! Moving right along… We spent several hours there, took the hayride out to the “patch” where we each picked out our special pumpkin and the hubs made it a point to find the biggest pumpkin in the patch- I think he searched for nearly 45 min, that’s my man, lol!! Dinner crept up on us and unfortunately if we would have known ahead of time we could have packed up food and had a picnic there with hotdogs and smores, because there are also picnic tables and fire pits there, what fun that would have been. It’s definitely on our to do list for next year! Several months back we took Lo to the movies to see “How to Train Your Dragon” in theaters- the child fell in love with the movie and all things Dragon (so of course he chose to be a Dragon for Halloween!) The movie came out earlier this month and he was SOOO (said SO-HO) excited about it, seriously. Therefore, I chose to make a big deal about it and we had a DRAGON PARTY. Yea, I will use any occasion to have a party- just in case you were wondering. At one of our MANY local Wal-Mart’s they had the opportunity to take your picture with a dragon, which was a billboard like thing with the dragons and a hole cut in it where you stick your head in and voila you are riding a dragon (so cute, I know) They, (the Wal-Mart) have you bring your camera, take the picture and they print you a free 5x7 of that picture- his smile- SO BIG, so good as you will see in the following picture. We then got the movie, some dragon themed candy, cupcakes, chips and pizza (all of which he requested) and then headed home to have our dragon party. Nana, Papa and Kenzie came and enjoyed the party along with him and following he had a slumber party with his auntie, Kenzie. I just want to pause and say that being a mom is the BEST, I love it and my life and I know that I can speak for B and say that OUR life is so much better, so much more fun with him in it.

Getting back on track and moving right along- throw in some everyday stuff, work, errands, sleep, lots of love, Logan painting his little pumpking- which he did EXCELLENT on, Daddy carving our “artificial” pumpkin as a dragon (yes, we decided to start this year carving an artificial pumpkin for all of Lo’s childhood Halloweens so that we can have them as little keepsakes of the holiday with him. We usually have a theme that we do on the pumpkin, whether its something he loves or what he is dressing up as. Last year he was a monkey and had a monkey pumpkin, this year he was a dragon, therefore, the pumpkin was carved as a dragon. Another plus, no icky mess- lol!)

Blah, blah, bleh and “badda-bing, badda-boom.” It is now the week of Halloween- and YES we celebrated for most of the week, thus the on set exhaustion. Really, our Halloween week started on Thursday when we had a costume contest at a local store- the kids participated and unfortunately- for WHATEVER reason, Lo didn’t win (*insert frowny face here*) yes, you totally got me I am a sore loser and I came to the conclusion that the contest was rigged because some of the other parents were jiveing it up with the judges *winky face*, he still got a prize for participating (a HUGE bag of candy, drinks and stickers, same as the winners, lol). However, on a proud momma note he did win the coloring contest in his age group which was beyond exciting when we got the call! Kenzie, (a.k.a Jasmine), on the other hand won first place in her age group at the costume contest- won that same HUGE bag of candy, drinks and stickers PLUS a $25 gift card- lucky duck! After the contest we headed over to the grandparents house for some early trick or treating where they loaded up and they had prepared Halloween goodies for visiting snacks, yumm-o. Friday rolled around and we dressed up again and made our way to Boo at the Zoo- LOTS OF FUN! It was dark which added to the decorated spookiness. The kids trick or treated along the Boo Trail getting all kinds of goodies from a mask to stickers, candy to a Krispy Kreme donut. There was various games, some fun music and good dancing, and I cannot forget the scary carousel that went backwards, how cool is that?!? Ending our very cold, very fun Friday evening with a great dinner together. Saturday, it was Halloween eve and we had no plans- REALLY?!?! A day with nothing to do…that can’t be and is obviously unacceptable because the hubs suggested we have a Halloween party- so I jumped on that and immediately started thinking about what we should do and what could be fun for the kiddos. We decided to have pizza (seems to be the party food in our household), cupcakes, chips, yummy mummy punch (so delicious) and the kiddos (with some help) made cutout Halloween cookies and then decorated them with icing and sprinkles when they cooled. I think I got a raving “AWESOME” from Lo- he really enjoyed making a you know what of a mess with the decorating part- I don’t mind at all it’s easily cleaned and those smiles last a lifetime! We ended the evening snuggled up, three wide (in our new king sized bed) and watched Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed the movie, fitting for Halloween and not too spooky for little dreams- plus it’s a fave of his. Whewww…wow- I am finally caught up to today, Sunday- the last day of October- Halloween, and our day was packed full of stuff to do. We went to church, had a good “breakfast lunch” rested for a brief second until time to get ready and head downtown Dandridge for some AWESOME trick or treating. It was something like out of a movie. The town is beautiful (the second oldest in Tennessee to be exact) and the trees are beautiful shades of every color. Children were running everywhere, lines were miles long- by far the best trick or treating I have ever been to. From there we went to church for the Harvest festival. Games, blow up bouncy things and hotdogs. Logan won two bite size goldfish which he loves and wants to carry them all around. The hubs and I ended the Halloween day with a creepy movie, a very nice relaxing ending to a very hectic month! Now, I am double exhausted just going over it all again and writing the world’s longest blog entry in the history of blog entries. Even though it did wear us out we absolutely LOVE living in a location that has so many activities going on for families to choose from. We didn't even get to participate in everything they had going on and just look at what all we accomplished! October was a hit of a month, and I presume that November and December will be as well. Who knows when my next entry will be due to the fact of the everyday busy-ness, the up and coming birthday party, the holidays, all the shopping, so on and so forth- you get the picture. As fast paced as my life is, I don’t let a moment slip me by that I don’t stop and take it all in and let the people who are most important to me know just how important they truly are. With all that being said, I hope that your life is going as beautiful as mine. Until next time.